The $6,000 Lie

Newly elected city council member Heidi Wills was criticized during the campaign for telling people what they wanted to hear, rather than sticking up for her own opinions. Her tactics paid off. Literally. Safe Streets and Parks for All, a pro-Sidran independent expenditure group, funneled more than $6,000 to Wills' campaign efforts after she told them she would NOT repeal the Parks Exclusion Ordinance. The generous folks at Safe Streets might be interested to know that at a candidate forum last August 19 sponsored by anti-Sidran folks from the Tenants' Union, the Seattle Displacement Coalition, and the homeless newspaper Real Change, Wills clearly stated that she WOULD repeal the ordinance. We've got a tape of the forum if anyone wants to hear it. JOSH FEIT

Microsoft is a Monopoly

DUH.

Landlord Candidate

No wonder city council candidate Cheryl Chow got so much support from landlords. Not only did her opponent, Judy Nicastro, run on a renters' rights platform, but as it turns out, Chow is a landlord herself. On her Public Disclosure Commission forms, Chow lists two rentals as sources of income. One property in Seattle generates as much as $30,000 a year, and another property in Renton generates as much as $15,000. The King County Assessor didn't have a value for the Seattle property, but listed the Renton condo at $87,300. The assessor also listed two other properties under Chow's name: a condo worth $156,000 and a property worth $211,000. JOSH FEIT

Pinball Wizards

Hey kids, you can play pinball at the Honey Hole again! The Capitol Hill restaurant and deli lost its pinball privileges two weeks ago, during a surprise inspection by the state Liquor Board. It turns out that the inspector was a bit overzealous -- assuming that the place carried hard liquor, he pulled the plug on the pinball machine. (No mixing booze and pinball.) But the Honey Hole only serves beer and wine, so "Aladdin's Castle" stays on. ALEXANDRA HOLLY-GOTTLIEB

Return on Investment

If you divide the cash a candidate spends campaigning by the number of votes they receive, you can determine how much they spent on your vote. Dawn Mason shelled out the most in this year's city council race -- $1.71 per vote. She lost. NANCY DREW